[Magdalen] More USA Today.

[Scott Knitter]

I've been following Angela Merkel and German news in general since
I've been watching the news from tagesschau.de almost daily (the 20
Uhr video...it's the main 8pm news show). She's been having trouble
with the Turkish bully Erdogan; his latest is attacking
Turkish-ancestry representatives in the federal parliament that
they're terrorists for helping pass the resolution classifying the
Armenian massacre as genocide. Previously he demanded punishment of a
German comedian for a satirical poem that lambasted Erdogan. There's
something called freedom of expression that he doesn't understand in
his bully world.

Merkel is being criticized by some for caving in to Erdogan (or not
hitting back hard enough) on some issues. I did have to laugh out loud
when I saw a blog post where they spelled her name "Frau Mürkül,"
which makes her name look Turkish. Zing...I don't agree but it looked
funny.

I agree that the USA needs to grow up about women leaders. Women are
leading in other western countries (notably Germany, where the defense
minister is also a woman) and doing the job at least as well as male
predecessors. Any misgivings over here are just ignorant. Oh, there
can be other problems with individual women being considered, but
being a woman is not one of them.

I'd have more of a problem with a 20-something being secretary of
state (Sebastian Kurz, Austria's foreign minister). There just needs
to be a bunch more experience there that only time can allow, no
matter how brilliant a thinker the person is. The "Bild" tabloid, when
Kurz was appointed, had a banner headline in English, "IT'S A BOY!"

-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA